NBA: Boston Celtics' Avery Bradley real pest to opponents

Everyone agrees that Celtics guard Avery Bradley is one of the best on-the-ball defenders in the NBA. So who taught him to play defense that way?

“Myself,” Bradley said.

“Really?”

“Really,” he replied. “Can’t nobody teach you that. It’s just a God given talent, a gift.”

Bradley, 22, said he was the same relentless defender when he began playing basketball as a child.

“If I pull my first-grade tape out right now, it’s the same way,” he said. “I run the same way, like when I run back on defense, everything. It’s the same way.”

You read that right. Bradley said his mother has a tape of him playing basketball in the first grade.

Bradley’s goal in defending the opposing point guard is simple, but not easy to accomplish.

“I just try to make everything hard on him,” Bradley said, “make him feel uncomfortable the whole game. Just try to tire him down. That’s my mentality going into every game.”

Most NBA players don’t have the quickness, stamina or the interest to continue defending an opponent fullcourt for the entire game, but Bradley does. That’s why Jeff Green calls him a pest.

“When I first got here,” Green said, “that was my nickname for him. We’d play one-on-one a lot and he’d be right up under me, being a pest. That’s what he does and I love it.”

Other teammates like to call Bradley a pit bull.

Tuesday at Philadelphia, Bradley and Courtney Lee harassed Sixers all-star guard Jrue Holiday all night. Holiday made only six of 19 shots and committed five turnovers. Lee tweeted that Holiday had pleaded with him and Bradley to ease up. Orlando point guard Jameer Nelson made the same request during a game last month when Bradley limited him to two points on 1-of-6 shooting.

“A lot of them just joke with me,” Bradley said. “I hear from their teammates, ‘Dang, can’t you just give him a little break?’ I just laugh about it. I just try to play hard the whole game.”

The pleading doesn’t work.

“That makes we want to go even harder when I hear things like that,” Bradley said. “It’s motivation.”

The 6-foot-2 Bradley doesn’t stop his opponent every game. Atlanta’s Jeff Teague scored most of his 26 points Friday against him, but Hawks coach Atlanta coach Larry Drew is still one of his admirers. Drew called Bradley’s tenacious fullcourt defense “somewhat of a lost art” in the NBA.

“You don’t see as many guards,” Drew said, “up the floor 94 feet putting pressure on point guards and he’s probably one of the best in our league.”

Why don’t you see more guards defending like Bradley?

“Defense is ugly work,” Drew said, “it’s not pretty work. Some guys don’t want to get down in the dirt and in the trenches and play that way.”

While Celtics coach Doc Rivers agrees that desire has a lot to do with Bradley’s success on defense, much more is involved.

“You have to have great feel, great feet, great instincts, great strength,” Rivers said. “It takes a lot.”

Rivers called Bradley a legitimate NBA defender the day he joined the team as a rookie in 2010 even though he was only 19 and had played just one season at the University of Texas. In his third season in Boston, he’s become a threat to replace injured teammate Rajon Rondo on the All-Defensive team. Missing the season’s first 30 games after undergoing surgery on both shoulders may keep him off the All-Defensive team though.

According to Synergy Sports, prior to Friday Bradley allowed only 0.678 points per play to rank second among NBA guards involved in 200 or more defensive plays. Bradley’s return has helped the Celtics jump from 23rd in the league in scoring defense earlier this season to seventh.

Bradley’s defense was always a given, but his scoring has picked up of late. During the Celtics’ five-game winning streak, he’s averaged 13.2 points and shot 52 percent, including 50 percent from threeland. Overall, he’s averaging a career-high 9.6 points, but shooting only 42.6 percent, including just 31.3 percent from threeland, well below his 49.8 and 40.7 percentages of last season. One reason for the dip could be his shoulders.

“Obviously, they feel a little weird every now and then,” he said. “They’re not as strong as I want them to be. All I can do is continue to work out every single day and try to get them strong.”

Bradley said he expects to have to work on his shoulders for the rest of his life.

Another reason Bradley’s offense has continued to lag behind his defense is he’s never experienced a full NBA training camp. As a rookie, he missed much of camp after undergoing ankle surgery that summer. Last year, the lockout greatly reduced the length of camps. This season, Bradley missed all of camp while rehabbing his shoulders and didn’t make his season debut until Jan. 2.

The Celtics went 14-16 without Bradley and have gone 20-11 since he rejoined the team, including 14-4 since he replaced the injured Rondo as the starting point guard. When Bradley plays well, so do the Celtics. In victories, he’s averaged 10.5 points, 3 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 43.2 percent, including 34 percent from threeland, and 82.4 percent from the line. In losses, he’s averaged 7.9 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 41, 25.9 and 50 percent.

As part of his Twitter page biography, Bradley wrote that he’s “chasing greatness. Y’all can follow.” As soon as he steps on a basketball court, Bradley begins chasing someone and he’s great at it.

The Celtics’ most significant early-season victory was undoubtedly a 108-100 conquest of Kevin Durant and the Thunder at the Garden the night after Thanksgiving.

Two nights earlier, the Celtics had been trounced at the Garden by San Antonio, 112-100, and earlier in the week they had lost by 20 in Detroit to a 1-9 Pistons team.

Paul Pierce scored 27 points and Kevin Garnett added 18 points and nine rebounds. Green scored 17, a season high to that point, against his former team, which had won eight of its previous nine.

The Thunder gets its chance for revenge at 1 p.m. today when the Celtics visit OKC on ABC.

The Celtics have changed a great deal since that the last time these two teams have met. Bradley didn’t play when the Celtics beat the Thunder on Nov. 23. Rondo, Jared Sullinger and Leandro Barbosa all did, but they’ve since suffered season-ending injuries.

OKC has won four in a row and owns the second-best record in the Western Conference, 1-1/2 games behind San Antonio. At home, the Thunder is 27-4 with four straight victories since falling, 110-110, to Miami on Valentine’s Day.

Entering Saturday, Durant held a slight edge over New York’s Carmelo Anthony for the NBA scoring lead (28.5-28.2) and could become only the third player to lead the league in scoring for four or more consecutive years. Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain each topped the NBA in scoring for seven years in a row.

Durant has become a more efficient scorer this season. He’s shooting 50.6 percent from the field and 90.6 percent from the line, both career highs. He’s also averaging career highs in assists (4.7), steals (1.5) and blocks (1.2). His 7.8 rebounds are just one-tenth behind his career high of last season.

If Green’s improved play of late didn’t end any lingering thought that the Celtics would have been better off keeping Kendrick Perkins, this stat line should: Perkins is averaging only 4.4 points and 5.9 rebounds for OKC.

James Harden, who the Thunder traded prior to the season, ranks fifth in the league in scoring (26.2). OKC point guard Russell Westbrook is sixth (23.4) so Bradley and Lee will have their hands full today.

OKC couldn’t come to an agreement on a contract extension with Harden so he was dealt to Houston for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick. Lamb rides the OKC bench, but Martin has averaged 14.4 points in 28.6 minutes and shot 43.1 percent from threeland, which is comparable to the 16.8 points and 39 percent that Harden gave OKC last year.

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15.